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"I'll be sitting in the same seat by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, joking that if the interview proceeded smoothly, he might welcome us into Downing Street for a follow-up conversation in 2026.

For a PM, there's rarely ever time off for leaders. In the hour before the interview began, Starmer had been speaking with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to decipher what on earth had happened in Venezuela, where his key friend, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once our lengthy talk, which was considerably lengthier than usual, had ended, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

With the new year begins, Sir Keir appears to have had a degree of a reboot. Maybe even just a bit of a rest with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's country retreat.

That certainly seemed to have left him in a more positive mood than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a terrible annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his allies deluding themselves if they think his fortunes are set to get better?

Internal Doubts

The grisly reality for the PM is that numerous of his colleagues are convinced he's underperforming at his job. Some of them would sooner take a risk and get him out sooner rather than later.

But Starmer was rejecting the idea during our conversation on Saturday morning.

Multiple times he told me he'd be "evaluated at the next election", maintaining no one would take his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the optimal path of halting Nigel Farage and Reform UK reaching No 10 could be for Labour to replace leader.

"This is the fight of our times and I plan to lead us," he said.

The Spring Test

The challenge for the PM is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May throughout the UK. He sought to contend, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and unrelated to Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But even though he may be reluctant to admit it, No 10 will be judged by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, should one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections be very poor for Labour.

An Optimistic Outlook

He attempted to account for his unpopularity by saying the voters was naturally anxious for things to improve. He tried to assure me, and the public, that the coming months would be a change.

The economic situation would improve notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when policies the government implemented during their first choppy year began to bear fruit.

• He vowed to empty asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he did not set a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it was not a done deal, that a settlement in Ukraine felt closer now than at any time since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He stated for the first time that Western partners were now considering how to coordinate US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to safeguard a potential peace.

His core argument is that soon the country will "turn the corner".

Familiar Arguments

The PM may have spoken with renewed vitality than observed from him for a some time – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite facing pressure from various quarters for a bolder strategy, with much more political direction, more dynamism, more speed and more urgency, his arguments were repeated ones.

Given that he is in such significant political peril, does he need a change of tack?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, gets everything its as planned.

The Prime Minister's challenges are not only because government is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have erred, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM admitted that he regretted saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK after an outcry when comments he'd made in the past – such as calls for Zionists and police to be killed – surfaced.

Starmer blamed "the system" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a more diplomatic way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is facing clear political dangers as the year unfolds. His alliance with the US president takes on a new risk after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over his career, the thought he would be content with such action seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "career-long champion of international law" but the public "simply lack the full picture at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to denounce it before the interview. And the government is expected to face increased demands to give an definitive view in Parliament in the near future.

There has also consistently been growing tension in the Labour party to revisit some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's doing that, but his new specific commitment to align more closely with the European trading bloc – the huge economic European trading zone – will likely provoke protests that he is reneging on his pledge never to try to overturn the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A move to integrate into more of the single market will please a faction on his backbenches, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to